 China's top diplomat was urging Japanese and South Koreans to team up together with them to own their own Asia destiny without the West because guess what he said, you will never be Westerners no matter how hard you try. Oh man, this is going viral. You guys know on the Hop Hop Boys we break down a lot of different things from silly to serious. Andrew, I'm going to go ahead and put this hyper geopolitical issue and almost like existential statement more on the serious side. And of course, Andrew, a lot of people had a lot of different comments. I mean, Andrew, you look on the Asian platforms, there was a ton of different comments, but they were very different than the comments you saw on a non-Asian more, I guess, white-centric platform. Right, David. So what did Wang Yi, Chinese diplomat say to the Japanese and South Koreans over at this conference in Qingdao, China? Alright, so they were all meeting up, right, having an East Asia conference and he said, remember, you guys can never become Westerners. We have to know where our roots are. It does not matter how much you dye your hair blonde or how sharp you make your nose. You will never be Europeans or Americans. You will never be Westerners. Do you think the South Koreans and the Japanese were like, yeah, that's like true, but like, what's the deal, China? Like, what are we going to get from teaming up with you? That is more of the pop stars in J-pop and K-pop. The delegation here in Qingdao only has a little bit of surgery. Wait, was Wang Yi low-key talking about ABGs and Asian Americans here? Yeah, and especially all the whitewash girls out there. And we got to give Wang Yi, by the way, looks, has a very interesting look, almost looks like Zelda or like an elf or something like that, right? One thing I will say this, and this is crazy, and like, you know, facility series, we break it down, but we got to take the ultra-series things kind of silly, Andrew. I had two thoughts. I was like, yo, man, they went to Qingdao. Did they get to try the Qingdao style of Koshui-G? Shout out to Tau's Kitchen in San Gabriel. It's the best style of Koshui-G, maybe even better than the one in Sichuan. And then number two, Andrew, I hope that they got to try Huang Meng-G too, because that is also from Shandong. But real quick, Andrew, why do you think people get so fired up about geopolitical things? I saw, I don't know how many comments I looked over, maybe a thousand for this. And some people are super duper fired up, you know, it's almost like they're, but it's very difficult to even make a drop in the bucket as a citizen when it comes to these gigantic big picture issues. For some reason, it's kind of weird, but nowadays, as just like a regular citizen who lives like a super micro life just works like a regular job that's just worried about their own life. There's no real power. Yeah, yeah, you can also start to think about world domination. Everybody's debating who should dominate the world? Who should be the superpower? Oh, China's going to take over in 50 years. Well, America's going to stop it, so America, you keep... And what if we can't let Ray Dalio be correct, man? Yeah, but also, I would just say like overall in a just practical sense, like I think and what you're going to see from the comment section a lot is that they're just questioning like, what deal is China offering to Japan and Korea? Because Korea, I think, is benefiting a lot from having ties with America, of course. Which is a unipolar superpower right now. Obviously, I believe China wants it to be dual polar. I know. Let America and then let China be the king of the East, right in America is the king of the West. In South Korea's defense, they're like, China, like we have like American troops, like in South Korea right now. And plus, our Netflix shows are going crazy right now. So like, I don't know, we're doing okay. Yeah, right. Like we are doing the Korean corn dog. Are you saying that if we unite, like we will have to do like the kimchi jjimbing? I don't know, but... Anyways guys, you know, obviously this is like a big serious issue, but you know, as Americans, David, being Americans... Right. But you guys are Chinese! No, look at the clothes we're wearing. David, you have the American flag on your jacket. Right. I mean, I just think it just gives us a more different perspective of breaking it all down. To be honest, I don't really take it all that serious. I know some people do. You know what I was noticing though? The people who took this the most serious, Andrew, were either just people with like a family or kind of like your complete like super internet geeks. You know what I mean? Like they almost like live their life on the internet. Anyway, we're going to get in the comments section. Of course, our own takeaways. Make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, Andrew. Yeah, I guess, but just to relax everybody, we are American, okay? We're pro-America. We support the place. Somebody said, this is actually a Japanese guy. He said, yeah, this Wang Yi guy, he's right, but he's wrong. And somebody said, the Chinese diplomat isn't wrong about having the concept of Asian unity. But the issue is that in recent memory, his country really hasn't done much to foster that unity. And somebody said, Japan and South Korea will continue their alliance with America as long as it is working for them. Dang, do you think like, do you think Wang Yi is like, yeah, we must unite and trust me, China? Don't forget about like the Taiwan thing and like the South China Sea and all this other stuff. Guys, that's not important. We have to focus on uniting. Right. I think that the concept of Pan Asian unity or Pan East Asian unity, whatever, it makes a lot of sense in America. But in Asia, it even conceptually makes sense. But then, of course, all the details of can we trust you? Is there beef? Are you over that old beef? Japan is probably like, what do you think about Nanjing? I need to know. Are you going to forget about it? Yeah, are we all good about that? Because until then, I'm going to go with Team America. Would you let us have another military? Somebody said, low key, this is what Americans think, though, in terms of agreeing with Wang Yi saying that like, of course, we'll never be Westerners no longer how whatever we contribute as with our passport. Yeah, it's funny. Asian Americans kind of weighed in was like, yeah, guys, this is the same racism that we experience in the West and then like China's trying to like kind of use it. And I'm like, yeah, I think it's interesting because this almost global marketplace world is almost starting to feel like just one big country together. So then now all the Asian student groups are like banding together and be like, yo guys, we need to start our own football games because we're not welcomed at the school football games. Right. Somebody says, bro, we can't even tell ourselves apart sometimes. This is saying that Asians obviously sometimes you have to ask another Asian what actual Asian country of origin they come from. Somebody said, he's spitting. Somebody said, yo, I'm not going to lie, this is from a Korean. Yo, Wang Yi sounds mad convincing. And then somebody said, nah, man, why is China sounding like Magneto trying to recruit the X-Men and all the other mutants against the humans? You must unite under straight black hair and the apocantal folds and the monoliths. We are different. And somebody said, no, us Japanese and Koreans don't want to be white. We know that the white Americans look down on us. But basically China, we view them as the Asian Russia and nobody wants to partner with Asian Russia. So I guess we'll just take our chances with the racist USA. I mean, this is the calculation. I would say that this is almost like the most common calculation you see, right? Yeah, somebody says as an Asian American, it sounds like he's trying to jujitsu the racism that we experienced by Western people against us. But we can see through it. Somebody said, you don't need to be white to be American. And somebody saying, no, listen, guys, of course we're American. We're just saying that most white people will never acknowledge us as a true fabric building block of America because they view us as others or people who just got here. Do you think that that is true? Do you think how relevant that is to the geopolitics? I think, you know what I realized, Andrew? Everybody can be right at the same time. Like Wang Yi can be right that Japanese and Koreans will never be Westerners, but they can also be right for picking Team USA. Yeah, because everybody's just trying to figure out their best situation out of the options on the table versus like what is correct. Yeah, I mean, he's not referring to Asian Americans not being Western. He is obviously referring to the nations of Japan and South Korea that they'll never be accepted as Westerners. Or, I mean, maybe Wang Yi is even saying something like, yeah, you will always never be more powerful than America. So why don't you team up with other Asians if you're going to be a second, third or fourth role? Right. Somebody's saying, listen, guys, the West wants us to be divided. You can be against communism, support China's progress and still support Korea and Japan and the rest of Asia's progress. It is just how the West wants us to be divided. Dave, is it kind of weird because there were some comments pointing out that it's just weird that he kind of pointed out the whole like physical appearance skin color thing? Like, yeah. Andrew, he went more specific than that. That was like oddly specific, almost like he was, yeah, just only speaking to the Instagram models and K-pop stars. Like, I don't know where that came from. Like, I didn't really think that that was part of a convincing argument. Right. It was more hilarious than anything. It was odd. That's a hilarious thing to say at the delegation. Maybe he was like, yeah, I'm trying to go viral, man. Come on. You got to say some ridiculous stuff. Somebody said, this is from a Korean guy. Now I got to agree Americans will always think of us as other. And the only reason why Korea and Japan are tolerated by the USA is because they are always kissing up to the USA and trying to be white. So in a way, I kind of agree with this guy, but I don't know about all that geopolitical stuff. Yeah, yeah. I feel like it's really an interesting conversation to have as Asian Americans where you take that conversation in and you boil it and you make it in an American lens where it's like, let's say, David, we're on YouTube or something or we're like talking to a crowd of people and we're like, we'll never be white guys. So we got to do some together. Forget this American hegemony. Alright. Andrew, let's get into some white comments that I pulled. Somebody said, well, yeah, you guys, it's true that Korea and Japan will never be Western, but they'll never be Chinese either. And the Chinese are not threatening, at least we are not threatening their borders or their territories or trying to dictate them to their domestic policy. Japan and Korea are partners with the West, not rivals unlike China. That's true. No, the relationship is different. It's like, you know, it is, it's like you have, you want all your friends to hate this other person, but your friends are kind of friends with them and they like work together. So then your friends are like, well, dude, bro, I can't just like cut them off, man, come on. Like, why are you being so grumpy? Somebody said the point that this boy is missing the point. It's not about appearances. It's about ideology. China has nothing good to offer in that respect. Yo, this is the hypocrisy, man, because some of the same people who are like, China's an evil country, man. They have no freedom. They're restrictive. But I do like how they execute their drug dealers. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I like their crime rate per capita, but man, all that other stuff is bad. No, he's like, all Chinese people are soulless and they have no religion. But man, these Chinese women are sure are some firecrackers. Somebody said Japan and South Korea have their own rich cultures. They have no need to be Westerners, although they can be Westernized, which is something different. And think about it. They don't got to all dye their hair blonde and sharpen their noses, but they are free to do so because they have adopted the Western freedoms. That's true. Yeah. Hey, they have freedoms to be ABG's. We give you the freedom. You can't be an ABG in China. Yep. Somebody said, oh, you can never be a Westerner. It's hilarious as Wang Yi says this in a Western suit. He's wearing a suit just like we wear. How come when America's negotiating with the Middle Eastern leaders or the Indian leaders, they're wearing traditional garb. So this guy's talking about being Eastern and he's wearing Western clothes. That was a solid point. Fair point, man. You got him. Because I think the Middle East and India, they have like religious things that make them wear their traditional clothing a lot more often. Yeah, China, they're not. Wang Yi wasn't wearing like a mandarin collar. He could have been, but he's not. That's not what the politicians... Well, which era of dynasty should he pick? Because they varied over the times. Somebody said, the problem is that China never passed history, has never regarded other nations in that area as sovereign equals. To be fair, Western colonialism was equally as bad or possibly worse. However, we are long past those archaic views and pointless wars. Do you think that this is a little bit hypocritical, Andrew, from the Western guy to be like, yeah, we already did all that, but we're good now, so you can't hold all that stuff against us. Basically talking about the Western colonial powers, obviously colonizing the world or taking over, but it does seem obviously like the West is far past that point in their particular development timeline. China is further behind on its development timeline. Ah, man, I don't know. Because all superpowers kind of do like bad things or like things that like push other people around. Every big country's got some dirt on them, you know, because they're big and they do things. And how did they get big? They probably did stuff they made. Oh, it's kind of like every rich billionaire. There's a bunch of stories of, oh, man, he stepped on my, you stole my idea or he like cut me out and he became a billionaire. It's like, dude, I don't know, man. Everybody, if you dig deep enough, everybody successful and powerful definitely got some dirt on him. So I think it's different because like these are not individual people where it's like, let's say I want to have an individual like relationship and like we're friends and I want to be friends. I'm going to put maybe some of your past aside, but like as a country, I don't know if they can do that. No, it's weird. It's fascinating, guys. Honestly, a lot of it, if you really remove yourself from like the emotion, you know, the emotion of it all, it's really like a country with, it's like trying, is it a different place and it's like timeline arc. Yeah. I mean, how big is geopolitics and why does it feel like, why, how big is it to the random, the average person's life and why does it feel like the average person has to bear this, this weight of thinking about who should dominate, of world domination. Like it's just like, I don't think everybody does. I definitely think like, you know what I mean? But in America, I think it's more a bigger deal because America is the 1A right now and they don't want China to be the 1B, right? Right, right, right. Because it does complicate things. Things are more easier to speak for the structure when it's unipolar versus like bipolar, dual polar. That's true. So I mean, I think it's different. Like when I went to Canada and nobody even cares, man. People just live in their life. You know what I mean? Because there's no, they're not in that position to, like you said, if they want to extrapolate, relate themselves to a civilization war. Yeah. I feel like America is all about these civilization wars of the globe. I think at the end of the day, for me, geopolitics has always been a part of my life. I think like, to be honest, obviously being Chinese, American, it's something that even got brought up when I was in middle school or high school, you know, in citizenship class. I remember people always like asking me all these crazy questions that nobody else was getting asked and stuff like that. So to me, it's almost something where I'm almost like, I can talk about all this stuff without feeling emotional. You know what I mean? Because I'm just like, man, let's just laugh at it. Because what are we going to do about it? We cannot impact this thing. I just want to like impact what I can do in the micro and be, you know, do positive things for everybody. Well, you know, the phone, bros, I didn't really know how to feel about you guys early on because I knew you were Chinese. But man, since you're repping that USA team Olympic gear, I trust you. Oh, man. Yeah. I'm definitely not going to feel about the rise of China the same way that, to be honest, like most white Americans feel about it. Right. Of course, I'm not going to feel the same as them. I have a lot, you know, different perspective on it. I do think a lot of this stuff, when it comes down to it, Andrew, it's just like an eight-sided die. You know, what number are you going to roll? What sub number are you going to roll? A lot of this stuff is super layered and super complicated. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. Ultimately, for me, I'm just hoping for the most peaceful, stable outcome for the world. All right, everybody, I think a lot of people are, but we'll see what happens. But until then, leave your life. All right, everybody, let us know in the comments down below. Please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. And until next time, we out. Peace.